Bertrand de Speville, former head of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, dies aged 78

Bertrand de Speville, the former chief of Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency, has died aged 78.

The prosecutor turned graft-buster led the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) between 1993 and 1996. After stepping down, he set up his own anti-corruption consultancy in England, and advised more than 50 countries on policies and initiatives to combat graft.

Announcing the news of de Speville’s death on Tuesday, ICAC commissioner Simon Peh Yun-lu said the agency had heard of its former leader’s death “with great sadness”.

“On behalf of all ICAC colleagues, I would like to express our deepest condolences to his family,” he added.

“Colleagues who had worked with Mr de Speville will fondly remember him as a determined leader with vision,” he added, calling his predecessor “a fine gentleman”.

Peh’s statement did not detail the circumstances of de Speville’s death.

De Speville fell under the media spotlight in his first year as ICAC chief, when he sacked a top investigator, triggering an investigation by the Legislative Council.

The ICAC had successfully apprehended members of a cross-border syndicate which had offered HK$33 million (US$4 million) in bribes to a local tobacco company to smuggle cigarettes worth more than HK$850 million.

The Post reported at the time that de Speville sacked Alex Tsui Ka-kit, then deputy director of operations, because the latter failed to declare his association with a man under investigation over the smuggling case.

Neither de Speville nor the ICAC ever made the reasons public, but a year-long, closed-door Legco investigation concluded the dismissal was reasonable.

Lawmaker James To Kun-sun, who initiated the probe into Tsui's dismissal at the time, said de Speville was “a good commissioner” who was decisive in firing Tsui.